I enjoy cooking despite evidence to the contrary, I simply find no pleasure eating alone.  Over the years I have done several cooking classes so when I found out that a Thai cooking class was on offer as part of the pre-TBEX activities I jumped at the chance to apply.

I have to admit to not being too familiar with Thai food apart from the well-known Thai green curry but after just a few days in Bangkok I quickly realised that there is a lot more to the cuisine than that dish.

Visiting the market

Our group of travel bloggers were taken by minivan to one of the smaller backstreet markets where Jay our guide and chef showed us some of the main ingredients which are used in Thai cooking.

Jay from the Silom Thai Cooking School

We saw bright pink (painted) duck eggs, lemon grass and tiny Thai eggplants.  We inspected the live fish and seafood and the thankfully dead meat.  We learnt about the huge variety of chilli and their differing strengths and we saw people going about their day to day shopping and then it was off to class.

Thai Cooking Class

At the Silom Thai Cooking School we each removed our shoes, put on a colourful apron and followed Jay up the stairs to wok heaven.

The cooking area was above the dining room and here in a long narrow room, 2 rows of woks were lined up waiting for us while underneath each work station (or should that be wok station?) was a little basket containing the ingredients for the first dish that we were going to learn to cook.

We learnt the correct way to rip the kaffir lime leaves, cut the lemon grass and how to chop the spring onions.  And before you ask, of course I know how to chop a spring onion but much emphasis is placed on the visual in Thai cooking and there is a right way and a wrong way to do things.

our Thai cooking class

And then on cue we lit the gas under our woks and things began to really heat up in the room.  There was one temperature allowed – scorching – so with Jay nipping around the room with his instructions (that man has the most amazing capacity for remembering names and information) we sizzled our way to our first masterpiece.

When Jay was satisfied that the last person was ready to turn off the fire under their wok we served up and paraded with our dishes downstairs to  the dining room where we tucked into our Tom Yum (spicy sour soup) while upstairs a team of helpers magicked away our dirty utensils and provided the ingredients for the next dish.

one of my masterpieces

The morning passed in a really pleasant, enjoyable, fun and sociable blur and to be honest, I’m not too sure which bit I enjoyed the most – the cooking, the eating or Jay’s banter.

But we turned out an impressive array of dishes, and we all contributed and helped to grind down the ingredients for a thai curry paste in a mortar (no jars, packets or monosodium glutamate here).  If you want to know more about Alice Nettleingham who is having so much fun in the picture below check out her travel blog here at Teacake Travels.  I met some amazing bloggers like Alice at TBEX Asia and I love her articles – all written with style and humour.

Alice Nettleingham takes her turn at the pestle and mortar

The school cater for vegetarians and they will swap ingredients if, for instance, you don’t eat seafood you can substitute chicken, and you are free to add your own level of spiciness when you chop your chillis.

At the end of the class we were each presented with a small cookery book from the Silom Thai Cooking School and all completely stuffed full, we rolled or rather waddled out of the door.

Scarlet Jones – Thai cook

The Thai cooking class certainly stirred up my passion for cooking again and classes are offered at a VERY reasonable price (click here for samples of the classes that they offer and the price).  I have a real appreciation of the work which goes on behind the scenes; whether the food is being prepared for a nice restaurant or on a street food stall.

Cabbages and Condoms

While I am on the subject of food I would like to drop in a mention of a worthwhile project that you might like to seek out while you are in Bangkok.

Cabbages and Condoms – their motto is ‘our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy‘ was set up in part to ‘promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning and to generate income to support various development activities of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA)’

You can choose to sit outside in a pretty courtyard which is festooned with fairy lights or inside in one of the air conditioned salons.  The restaurant is quirkily decorated with condoms and with messages which support family planning.  There are life sized statues or sculptures of characters made up of numerous condoms – much as a flower display would be made of petals and even the carpet has a condom design.

our happy little condom family

There is a small handicraft shop here and instead of receiving an after dinner mint with your coffee you are given a condom.  As well as providing excellent food in wonderful surroundings, you can eat well and know that a proportion of your bill will be used to fund the social development programs of PDA

So here are two food options for you which you should certainly check out if you have the time while you are in Bangkok. My last blog article was all about my specialty one-off tuk-tuk tour around Bangkok at night during the Vegetarian Festival, although rest assured, there is plenty to do in Bangkok other than eating and drinking.

If you want to re-kindle a passion for something that you love or once loved whether it be food, art, music or anything else, but somehow life seems to have got in the way, make sure that you continue to read my blog as I will shortly be announcing the launch of a new course which will guide you to getting the zest back into your life again.

Disclaimer: whilst I received a complimentary cooking class from the Silom Thai Cooking School this has not influenced my article. All opinions and comments are my own.

Do feel free to Pin any of the images over to your Pinterest boards if you want a reminder in the future of this article.

heating up in the kitchen